How can a sports franchise drive revenue 365 days a year? Incorporate a mixed-use development on the stadium grounds or create an entirely separate attraction. The benefits are enormous if the land and the investment can support this concept but it’s not without risk. The Jaguars become the latest sports franchise to look to mixed-use to drive revenue.

The Patriots built Patriot Place, an outdoor mall attached to Gillette Stadium with the Patriots Hall of Fame, retail and restaurants. The Cowboys have broken ground onThe Star in Frisco, TX with their new corporate HQ , indoor practice arena, retail, office and a hotel. NASCAR has One Daytona, with hotel, shopping and entertainment options. L.A. Live is a shining example of this as well with areas for broadcast, sponsor activation, hotels and entertainment within feet of NBA and NHL action.

The mixed-use facilities give teams additional ways to collect data on fans and enhance the options for sponsors to activate and provide ROI with retail locations of their own and other ways to activate their sponsorship. In fact I’ve called on a national firm that provides security solutions for homes and businesses and their CMO explained they only sponsor teams who have some mixed-use options where they can get instant return by providing the security solutions for those businesses. At the time they were working with the Barclays Center, another wonderful mixed-use example. Our local minor league baseball team, the Charlotte Knights, included street facing businesses that could be open all year long into their ballpark designs.

For Jacksonville it gives the team a way to give the community a viable development for the Shipyards, an area that has been problematic to find the proper economic development match though many have tried. It demonstrates the Jaguars commitment to North Florida and ties the team closer to its fans.

The early plan includes places to live, stay, work, and play with condos, offices, hotels and a park. Check out the full story on Jaguars.com for the vision and concepts by Populous presented by their owner Shad Khan.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger James A. DeMeo and was originally published on AthleticBusiness.com.

The Boston Marathon bombings changed the face of the sports and entertainment industry. That tragic day raised new challenges in protecting athletic and open-air events, but it also had an impact on the business and marketing aspects of the industry.

The sports and entertainment industry today is a multi-billion dollar enterprise. Secured television contracts, sponsorship agreements and venue naming rights make marketing executives glow with excitement as they look to expand the visibility of their respective brands and reap the benefits of increased profit margins that come along with it. However, sports marketing executives face serious challenges beginning with risk mitigation and brand protection, particularly at sporting venues and stadiums. It’s an issue that causes these executives many sleepless nights.

Why you ask? The last thing any ownership or investment group wants is to have an adverse incident occur within their stadium. Hard or soft targets, such as a stadium or open-access event like a marathon, cause equal concerns for both marketing and security personnel. The question begs: Are ownership groups spending anywhere near enough money on security training and initiatives?

Today’s sports and entertainment industry has what I consider the following synergy: The 3 C’s: Crossover. Congruence. Connectivity.

A nexus virtually exists between sports finance/marketing groups and sports security professionals. C-suite level executives have now afforded security and venue directors a “seat at the table” during operational and planning discussions. These ownership executives have realized that any adverse situation can potentially damage an organization’s reputation.

Furthermore, sports marketers face additional challenges with getting fans to attend events these days. With more fans opting to watch sporting events from the comfort of their own living room in crystal clear high definition, without the expense or time commitment of attending in-person, getting fans to games is more difficult than ever. Ownership groups know that the fans that do choose to attend need to have a good experience. One ugly experience — a brawl or fight, a fire, explosion, drone attack, weather emergency, you name it — is all it takes for a fan to be turned off and never return. Not to mention, the loss of life is the most important concern. All of these scenarios are direct threats to an organization’s brand and its bottom line.

Mitigating inherent risks associated with operating a venue is a paramount duty for security staff. We have seen the financial fallout when ownership groups skimp on security. The LA Dodgers lost a multi-million dollar judgment due to a fan violence situation last year. Lack of security was cited as being a contributing factor with the ownership group being held partially financially responsible for punitive damages in the case.

In the sports security profession, there exists a general rule of thumb regarding effective security deployment; the 1/250 rule. This rule states that for every 250 patrons in attendance, the venue should counter with 1 highly trained security staff member being assigned to work the event. With profit margins being so tight, venue ownership groups don’t always follow this rule. However, ownership groups take do take a more proactive approach with enhanced security staff training, education, and certifications for their security personnel will have greater success reducing these inherent liabilities. Increased training means a better security product for fans and higher morale, better focus, greater venue familiarity, and reduced employee turnover for staff members.

In summary, the mission of any security initiative is to protect fans without being overbearing or creating a police state. Ownership groups need to realize there is no getting around the need to spend money on security. Security and asset protection is a proactive discipline. Reactionary measures will not suffice in these challenging times.

We want to know your thoughts on event security. How can we make today’s events safer without sacrificing the gameday experience? Tell us your thoughts. The more fans and security are on the same page, the more enjoyable and safer your overall fan experience will be. After all you are the one paying for a great sporting experience. You certainly deserve nothing less.

Author James A. DeMeo is a retired detective with the Nassau County Police Department in Long Island, New York and has 24 years of experience in the law enforcement and security industries. DeMeo has been featured as a security expert in Pan Stadia Magazine and Security Magazine. For more information, connect with him on LinkedIn.

It’s time for another edition of Infographic Friday. This one comes to us TwinsTrivia.com who created an excellent visual breakdown of the Twins’ new spring training complex in Fort Myers, Florida, including information on:

The NFL season is quickly approaching and fans across the country are getting their tickets ready. Game tickets, however, won’t be the only way some fans can get into football stadiums this season. Along with games every weekend (and some weekdays), many franchises are monetizing their stadiums on off-days and during the offseason by hosting stadium tours.

While in the scheme of things, stadium tours might seem like a pretty small part of the business, it has several great benefits that could be easily overlooked:

For some fans, the cost of tickets might simply be too expensive for them at the moment, especially in the NFL, but they still want to experience being inside the venue. Think of this as a small first step in the long-term sales funnel for this audience.

On a similar note, stadium tours can provide a great group outing experience. Teams can create special group tour packages for youth groups, local sports teams, business organizations and other special interest groups, and tickets are much more affordable than game tickets. A group could have a great experience via a tour, and eventually upgrade to game tickets.

Every team has a significant percentage of fans that live outside their home market. This is obvious from some of the metrics I’ve seen where upwards of 75% of team followers on social media are not local consumers. When this audience travels, there is a good chance that your team doesn’t have a game that overlaps with their schedule. Making stadium tours available is perfect for this audience, who still engage with your brand via digital, television, merchandise and more. This point is particularly important for international fan development, which is definitely important to the NFL.

Finally, this is a great engagement opportunity for existing season ticket holders. I would give these customers up to four free stadium tour tickets per season, which provides them a great “behind-the-scenes” opportunity. This can be further enhanced by adding a “STH exclusive” component to the tour experience, which would show the other tour participants some of the great value that comes with being a season ticket holder

Jesse Lawrence from TiqIQ has gathered some great data and insights around the prices for NFL stadium tours, which he was nice enough to share below.

The most expensive stadium tour is at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium with a price of $30 for an hour and a half long walkthrough. Opened in 1972, it is one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL. The next most expensive tours are from three of the newer stadiums in the league, AT&T Stadium, Levi’s Stadium and MetLife Stadium.

For its inaugural season, a tour of Levi’s Stadium costs $25, though the price varies between peak and non-peak days. The tour goes through the main concourses and locker rooms, things that have only been used by the San Jose Earthquakes for an MLS game held against the Seattle Sounders (the 49ers will play their first preseason game there on August 17). If the trend of new stadiums having the highest tour prices continues, the new Minnesota Vikings stadium could have around a $25-$30 price tag for a tour in 2016.

While some of the older stadiums such as O.co Colisem and Qualcomm Stadium do not offer tours, there are some noticeable stadiums absent from our venue tour list that would likely have plenty of demand, including Gillette Stadium in Foxborough and the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

There are actually eight teams in the league that offer this tour for under $10. The Carolina Panthers offer the most affordable tour at $5, and the Atlanta Falcons and Houston Texans have tours available for just $6. The Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions all cost $7, the Pittsburgh Steelers cost $8 and the Arizona Cardinals cost $9.

There are also teams like the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks who have loyal fan bases and tremendous on-field performance that also have fairly inexpensive tour prices. Tours of Lambeau Field are just $11 while a tour of CenturyLink Field, home of the best home field advantage in the NFL comes in at $12.

It’s time for another edition of Infographic Friday. Today’s entry comes to us from the Carolina Panthers and it shows all the gameday upgrades fans will see at the stadium this season. I chose this because it’s a great example of how infographics can be used to communicate information with your current customers in an more engaging format than text-based articles and emails.

It’s time for another edition of Infographic Friday. Coming off of Super Bowl Sunday, there were several interesting infographics released this week, so rather than share just one of them, here are six for you to enjoy covering everything from advertisements to analytics.

Click on any of the images to see the full infographic, and click on the text link to see the original source article for each one.

It’s time for another edition of Infographic Friday. Today’s submission comes to us from the San Francisco 49ers who played their final regular season home game at Candlestick Park on Sunday. The 49ers have been aggressively using infographics all season for game previews, recaps, player accomplishments and more. This particular one does a great job combining interesting facts about the stadium, including some great numbers on attendance and concession purchases, with the top five 49ers historic moments that took place at “The ‘Stick.”

Click on the infographic to view the original version along with fan comments at 49ers.com.

It’s time for another edition of Infographic Friday. Today’s submission comes to us from the Atlanta Business Chronicle and gives a clear and concise breakdown of the financial plans behind the new Atlanta Braves stadium coming to Cobb County, Georgia in 2017, along with a preview of the potential economic impact. You can click here to read the full article that goes along with the infographic.

Credit: Cobb County Board of Commissioners and Atlanta Business Chronicle

I will try to write more about the event over the next few days, but in the meantime, I wanted to share a presentation from Marcos Diaz Gonzalez, Vice President of Global Program Management, Global Sports for AECOM. Marcos talked about the preparation that goes into designing the site and facilities for hosting an Olympic games, and how important it is to plan not just for the event, but for how the site will transition and thrive for years afterwards.

His presentation showed several of the designs that went into their winning bid, and they were nice enough to let me share the presentation with you here.

As we approach the start of the NFL season, with millions of fans visiting some of the world’s largest and most modern stadiums, I thought it would be fun to look back in time at one of the original sports venues – Panathenaic Stadium. These pictures were taken by my friend and former colleague Michael Barrett. Here are some quick notes from him on the photos:

Panathenaic Stadium is pretty incredible and the most impressive sight I’ve seen so far. It was built in 329 B.C. entirely of marble and was the site of the first Olympics in 1896. There are 25 rows, then a “concourse” and then 24 more rows to the top. It’s quite challenging to walk to the “second deck.” Check out the picture of the stairs between the two levels….7 high steps literally straight up with no rails. I love the “owner’s suite” – two seats for the King and Queen on the 50. And the tunnel to the “locker rooms” is pretty impressive. It’s amazing and baffling that this was all engineered 2400 years ago.